


Traveling Woman

by ami_ven



Category: Cinderella (Fairy Tale), Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms
Genre: Community: writerverse, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-08
Updated: 2014-06-08
Packaged: 2018-02-03 20:46:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1756659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once upon a time, there was a little girl who studied magic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Traveling Woman

**Author's Note:**

> written for LJ community "writerverse" prompt "origins"

Once upon a time, there was a little girl. She was very smart and very curious about the world around her. If she had been a little girl today, she would have gone to university and studied science. But in those days, so long ago, there were no such things as universities or science, and so the little girl decided to study magic.

Magic in those days was very much like science is now— mostly, smart people trying to find out why things happened the way it happened, then writing those things down— and the little girl was eager to learn. So, she traveled the world, searching for any magician who would take her on.

The girl apprenticed herself to a group of witches a few days’ walk from her own village, who taught her to pick healing herbs and soothing flowers, to brew noxious poisons and restorative droughts, to vanish into the forest as if she had never been. She became traveling companion to a wizard, who taught her how to wield a magic wand, to see distant places in a crystal ball, to disappear in a puff of smoke. She studied with an illusionist, who taught her to add flourish to her magic, to hide things in plain sight, to distract the eye and misdirect the mind. She went on tour with a conjurer who taught her how to create things from thin air, to turn ordinary things extraordinary, to appear as suddenly as she knew how to vanish. She even spent a summer with a poet, because sometimes words could be the greatest magic of them all.

After traveling all around the world, the girl felt that she had learned enough to begin her own career, and she went back home to her village. But she was not a girl any longer, she was a woman, and her home was not as she had left it. Everyone she had known in her childhood were grown, now, with children of their own, and the woman knew that she could not stay.

So, she set out again, traveling as a magician in her own right. She had not gone very far when she met a young man, all alone on the road. 

“I am on a quest,” he said, when she greeted him. “The girl I love is daughter to the town magistrate, and he has decreed that no one may win her hand until the Ogre of the Wild Forest has been vanquished.”

The woman knew that the young man meant to fulfil the task and win the girl’s hand, so she ask, “Does the magistrate’s daughter love you?”

The young man nodded, and produced a lady’s handkerchief from his pocket. “She has given me her token.”

The woman smiled. “Then I will help you.” It was no hard task at all to enchant his sword to never break, and infuse his cloak with a healing charm. “Ogres are very strong,” she said. “But slow. You will not be able to out-fight him, but you _can_ out-smart him.”

The young man thanked her, and continued on his way.

Some days later, the woman stayed at an inn, where she saw a young woman crying as she stacked plates on a tray. After some coaxing, she told the woman about the ball being held at the Lord Governor’s mansion that night, and how she longed to go. But her father’s inn was failing, and even if she _could_ take the night off, she could never afford a dress fine enough.

The woman smiled. “If you will trust me, my dear, I will watch the inn for one night.”

“Oh, thank you!” cried the young woman. She whirled around the inn, explaining everything that would need to be done, until the clock struck. “It’s almost time! But… a dress…”

The woman laughed, and raised her wand. In moments, the young woman’s practical homespun dress had become a beautiful gown, with jewels at her throat and in her upswept hair. “The illusions will not last forever,” she warned. “Don’t stay out too late.”

She sent the girl off, then tied on an apron and smiled at the first of the dinner crowd.

As the sun came up the next morning, the young woman returned, her gown already fading back to sturdy cotton. “It was wonderful,” she sang, dropping onto the hearth. “I danced all night with the Lord Governor’s son.”

“I’m glad,” said the woman, and accepted the basket of food the young woman insisted she take for her journey.

As she traveled, the woman met more and more people who needed her help. Younger sons and miller’s daughters, cursed nobles and enchanted royalty, she did her best by them all. Then, suddenly, she entered a village where she was already known.

The woman had never been there before, she was sure, and yet everyone she met had heard of her deeds. It was something she had never thought of, when she began to study magic, that someday she would be more famous than any of her teachers. 

Perhaps, she thought, perhaps she had traveled far enough. She was older, now, past middle age, though not yet elderly. Perhaps, she should… retire.

The woman found a place in the woods, far from any cities, where bright blue wildflowers grew, and she built herself a cabin set into the hills. She planted herbs in neat rows and took long walks by the rambling stream. She read books all afternoon and charted the stars in the night sky.

But staying in one place was not as easy as she might have thought. At first, she enjoyed the quiet, but she missed helping people. So, she decided to meddle, when she felt it was needed.

“I heard you crying, my dear,” she said, to the beautiful young woman in rags, kneeling beside a stone bench. “I’m here to help.”

“Who— who are you?” the girl asked.

The woman smiled. “Why, I’m your fairy godmother.”

THE END


End file.
